ANDY MURRAY hailed one of the best years of his career after winning his maiden China Open title against Grigor Dimitrov in Beijing.
It was the 29-year-old’s fifth tournament victory of the year, which includes Wimbledon and a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, in what was his ninth final of the season.
“It has been the most consistent year of my career, getting to the latter stages of most of the events I have played,” he said. “It was a great week for me. Today’s match was a very high-level match. Grigor fought right to the end and made it extremely tough to finish it in two sets.
“It has been an excellent week and I’m very happy with the way I’ve played the last couple of matches. I will look forward to Shanghai now.”
Despite defeat, Dimitrov was relieved to have performed for his fans in China after recent poor displays in Asia and is hoping for further improvements in the future.
“I never had good results out here in China and I’m finally happy I did this time,” he said. “Hopefully I can continue like that for the rest of the year.
“I’m just glad that I fought so hard this tournament. It meant a lot to me. Andy is one of the toughest competitors out there no doubt.”
And Johanna Konta wants to keep progressing and challenge for more titles after climbing into the world’s top 10, despite defeat by Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska.
The third seed won the China Open yesterday 6-4, 6-2.
British No1 Konta fought off a first match point in the seventh game of the second set, but Radwanska completed victory while serving in the next game to win in one hour 35 minutes.
Konta, the 11th seed, had reason to celebrate despite the defeat, as she became the fourth British woman to make the world’s top 10 since the WTA rankings began in 1975.
“It’s pretty cool,” she said. “I’m very pleased with my progress over the past few years and hopefully many more places to climb. I’m just working hard towards playing matches like these, against players like Agnieszka.
“She was definitely a woman on a mission. Whenever I felt I could have got a little bit of a foothold in the match, she took it away from me.
“She hardly missed a ball. When she is so consistent and she moves the ball around as well as that, she’s very, very difficult to beat. I definitely fought til the very end. I tried to exhaust all avenues possible. It just didn’t go my way. But, again, a lot of good things to take from this week.”
Konta was ranked 146th in the world as recently as June 2015 but she climbed into the top 10 by winning her semi-final.
The 25-year-old defeated Madison Keys 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, to become the first British female since Jo Durie in 1984 to make the top 10. Virginia Wade and Sue Barker are the other British females to have been ranked in the world’s top 10.
By reaching the China Open final Konta also moved into the top eight of the Road to Singapore - the race to reach the WTA Finals later this month.
Radwanska was thrilled to win in Beijing for a second time. She said: “Every title means a lot, but especially here when you play against the best players in the world, in one of the biggest tournaments.
“It’s top players from the first round and I’ve been playing my best tennis all week so of course I’m very happy to win this tournament again, and this trophy is going to stay in a very special place.”
Elsewhere, Australia’s Nick Kyrgios secured the biggest victory of his career with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Belgium’s David Goffin at the Rakuten Japan Open in Tokyo.
The 21-year-old served 25 aces on his way to victory and even fought back from 4-5 and love-30 down in the final set to win the final three games and earn his third title of the year.
“It has been the most consistent year of my career, getting to the latter stages of most of the events I have played,” he said. “It was a great week for me. Today’s match was a very high-level match. Grigor fought right to the end and made it extremely tough to finish it in two sets.
“It has been an excellent week and I’m very happy with the way I’ve played the last couple of matches. I will look forward to Shanghai now.”
Despite defeat, Dimitrov was relieved to have performed for his fans in China after recent poor displays in Asia and is hoping for further improvements in the future.
“I never had good results out here in China and I’m finally happy I did this time,” he said. “Hopefully I can continue like that for the rest of the year.
“I’m just glad that I fought so hard this tournament. It meant a lot to me. Andy is one of the toughest competitors out there no doubt.”
And Johanna Konta wants to keep progressing and challenge for more titles after climbing into the world’s top 10, despite defeat by Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska.
The third seed won the China Open yesterday 6-4, 6-2.
British No1 Konta fought off a first match point in the seventh game of the second set, but Radwanska completed victory while serving in the next game to win in one hour 35 minutes.
Konta, the 11th seed, had reason to celebrate despite the defeat, as she became the fourth British woman to make the world’s top 10 since the WTA rankings began in 1975.
“It’s pretty cool,” she said. “I’m very pleased with my progress over the past few years and hopefully many more places to climb. I’m just working hard towards playing matches like these, against players like Agnieszka.
“She was definitely a woman on a mission. Whenever I felt I could have got a little bit of a foothold in the match, she took it away from me.
“She hardly missed a ball. When she is so consistent and she moves the ball around as well as that, she’s very, very difficult to beat. I definitely fought til the very end. I tried to exhaust all avenues possible. It just didn’t go my way. But, again, a lot of good things to take from this week.”
Konta was ranked 146th in the world as recently as June 2015 but she climbed into the top 10 by winning her semi-final.
The 25-year-old defeated Madison Keys 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, to become the first British female since Jo Durie in 1984 to make the top 10. Virginia Wade and Sue Barker are the other British females to have been ranked in the world’s top 10.
By reaching the China Open final Konta also moved into the top eight of the Road to Singapore - the race to reach the WTA Finals later this month.
Radwanska was thrilled to win in Beijing for a second time. She said: “Every title means a lot, but especially here when you play against the best players in the world, in one of the biggest tournaments.
“It’s top players from the first round and I’ve been playing my best tennis all week so of course I’m very happy to win this tournament again, and this trophy is going to stay in a very special place.”
Elsewhere, Australia’s Nick Kyrgios secured the biggest victory of his career with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Belgium’s David Goffin at the Rakuten Japan Open in Tokyo.
The 21-year-old served 25 aces on his way to victory and even fought back from 4-5 and love-30 down in the final set to win the final three games and earn his third title of the year.
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